Description

Your life is a mere breath. This reality can be difficult for us to live by. The book of Ecclesiastes takes us on a journey to show us that although this life is a vapor, it is still a gift from God meant to be enjoyed. Instead of giving a pessimistic look at life under the sun, Ecclesiastes shows us how to glorify God in this fleeting life by enjoying the ordinary, good gifts God bestows.

Endorsements

Get ready to be refreshed, strengthened, steadied, and wisened. Through this commentary, Brian will help you navigate life as it really is. Brian Borgman’s commentary on Ecclesiastes is here to deliver the book from a bad reputation and the reader from immaturity. Ecclesiastes has a reputation for being esoteric, disheartening, and confusing. Brian masterfully exposes the true meaning through his treatment of the underlying interpretive grids in the book. This commentary will help you navigate life’s ups and downs, gains and losses, sorrows and joys.

—Scott Brown
Pastor at Hope Baptist Church, Wake Forest, NC
President of Church and Family Life

For many people, the book of Ecclesiastes seems just too puzzling and negative to interest them. However, Brian Borgman's exposition of Ecclesiastes will change their minds, because through careful analysis and vivid writing he has explained the positive message of this biblical text in a compelling fashion. Life is indeed short, and it contains a lot of things that we cannot understand or control, yet God has also given us the ability to find joy in our brief and perplexing lives. If you have avoided Ecclesiastes, thinking it depressing and discouraging, let Borgman take you by the hand and show you its delights. 

—Daniel Estes
Distinguished Professor of Old Testament
Cedarville University

In this accessible, experiential, and thought-provoking commentary, Brian Borgman provides faithful exegesis, practical application, and balanced perspective on perhaps one of the most misunderstood books of the Bible. Borgman demonstrates that Ecclesiastes is not about life’s vanity (lack of purpose) but its vapor (lack of permanence). Although Solomon is realistic about life in a fallen world that is full of uncertainty, injustice, suffering, pain, and death, he also shows that man’s vaporous life is full of God’s beautiful gifts—like food, youth, work, and marriage—and that we can glorify our Creator by enjoying these gifts with thanksgiving. The good life, then, is one lived soli Deo gloria—for the glory of God alone and in the enjoyment of Him alone. Be prepared to have your assumptions about Ecclesiastes transformed!

 —Joel R. Beeke
Chancellor and Professor of Homiletics & Systematic Theology
Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary